The present invention relates generally to the field of eye wear, and, in particular, to a new and useful, light weight eye covers with no ear engaging temples, which can be used as sunglasses, eye shields, eyeglasses or the like.
Conventional eye wear utilizes either a frame or frameless structure that includes means for suspending transparent viewing areas in front of the eyes of the wearer. This part of the eye wear is usually supported on the bridge of the nose. Conventional eye wear also includes side pieces commonly referred to as “temples” which are designed to extend along the side of the face and over the ears.
Alternate approaches for supporting eye wear on the head of a user include bands and cords which extend entirely around the user's head.
Several attempts have also been made to provide eye wear with no temples. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,562,319 to Fairall which discloses simplified eye wear made of a pair of slidably engaged plastic sheets having side portions that can be bent to engage the wearer's temple, forward of the wearer's ears.
The eye wear is, thus, made lightweight and engages the temples at relatively sharp ridges. The eye wear is held to the head by friction between the sharp ridge and the temples of the wearer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,419,909 to Spain also discloses temple-less eye wear. Side pieces engage the temples of the wearer by friction. The frame is permanently formed into a U-shape for this purpose.
Another approach to temple-less eye wear is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,862 to Heil. In this case, suction cups or adhesive tapes are used to engage the temples of the wearer, forward of the wearer's ears, to hold the viewing areas of the eye wear in front of the eyes of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,655 to Paschel, et al discloses temple-less eye wear using magnets to engage adhesively attached magnets or magnetically attractable areas at the temples of the user. Also see U.S. Pat. No. 715,533 to Anderson (1902) and U.S. Pat. No. 714,664 to Briggs (1902) for eye wear having temple engaging structures.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,349 to Willis, discloses temple-less eye wear having cushions for frictionally engaging the wearer's temples to hold the eye wear to the wearer's head.
A simplified light weight eye wear structure is also disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,216 to Rosenthal. A sheet of resilient flexible plastic that includes viewing areas is preformed into a curled shape. Even when uncurled, the material of the sheet has “memory” and tries to return to its curled state. By using this attribute, a wearer uncurls the specially shaped sheet of material and then engages it to his or her head. The sides of the sheet material, which is constantly trying to return to its curled state, closely engages the temple areas of the wearer, forward of the ears, and thus, holds the eye wear to the wearer's head. This structure, however, applies continuous firm pressure to the temples of the wearer. This pressure, as with the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 1,562,319 to Fairall, is concentrated at a sharp ridge or edge against the sides of the head and may result in headaches. Certainly, long wear of this type of structure would be uncomfortable. Further, none of the known structures are made of material or incorporate means which allow bending of at least the temple areas into a smooth arcuate shape, which shape is retained and sufficiently fixed to allow smooth flat surfaces to gently press against the surfaces of the wearer's temples, forward of the wearer's ears, to hold the eye wear with its viewing areas in front of the wearer's eyes.